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...and soon there will be no space to run around. An orchard. Whereabouts?

I thought the whole point of the orchard movement was to reclaim old gardens or wasteland - not convert perfectly good playing fields.

Has the council agreed to Transiton towns proposal? Are, we, the local residents going to be consulted. The Brockley Assembly is hardly the venue to dothat. Much like Hilly Fields isn't the best place for a community orchard

I would say that the Assembly is a very good place to consult local people. I agree that I hope that some unloved spots can be reclaimed for orchards - that is actually happening, as I will report soon.

However, I wish people wouldn't immediately criticise plans they know nothing of. My understanding is that it will not occupy open grassland, the trees will fit in to the existing pattern of the park. I'll bring more details soon or contact the Transition Brockley group and ask them about it (nicely).

When they say orchard, I believe it is actually a fairly small number of trees, that the Friends of Hilly fields are proposing to site in the area between the stone circle and the conservation area. So very much a mini orchard that shouldn't impact on the rest of the fields. I know the Friends of Hilly Fields are very particular about maintaining sightlines from the top and think carefully about the positioning of trees, benches etc to avoid blocking views. (Of course they may change this policy if the town centre developments go ahead . . .)

Friends of Hilly Fields have their meeting next week, 9th March, 7.30pm, park keepers' room, if you want to hear more about their plans.

Ludicrous idea. A park is a park. It is a recreational space. If you want to turn a park into a productive space then fair enough, redesignate this land as smallholdings or allotments or whatever. I don't want Hilly Fields to be involved on "local food production". It's not a space for food production. The allotments on One Tree Hill are a space for food production. Fine, that's what it's about. Can the minority opinion yet admittedly well organised Transition Brockley please stop imposing their "vision" on the rest of us?

I don't see why it's ludicrous. Warwick Gardens (border of Camberwell/Peckham) is about to get a little orchard, and that's a lot smaller than HF. Why can't we have a little orchard as part of a planned process of replacing trees? Trees are one of the great glories of Hilly Fields, in my view, and the sight of a dozen or so fruit trees in full blossom in spring would be a great joy for all of us.

I have no problem with planting fruit trees. I have no problem with them being planted on Hilly Fields, if it's to add to the aesthetic and natural experience of being in a park. I do, however, object, to the implication that my local park needs to change its function from being a park to being a place to grow food because of a belief that we need to take this action because the oil is about to run out and we need to change how we use our local area to prepare for this. Until we are all agreed that we need do this and change the way that we live, can we please leave Hilly Fields as a park and not turn it into a glorified small holding?

Well, as I've never had any success in growing beetroots that's no bad thing. But I wouldn't grow those beetroots in someone else's garden . . . as a previous contributor said, why not find some waste ground to transform instead? I'd come out and help with that, but as an almost daily user of HF and massive sceptic of the transition town approach (though not a sceptic of climate change or the need to tackle it) I reserve my right to hold this point of view.